This invention relates to medical devices and, more particularly, to a system that changes the priority of alarms on medical devices.
In present medical devices, there are numerous alarm systems that are activated under fault conditions to alert the user to the existence of those fault conditions. In such devices, there are a wide variety of alarms and many conditions that are continuously monitored. Many fault conditions can occur with respect to the patient or with respect to certain conditions of the medical device itself.
In general, the types of alarms are classified into certain categories according to the severity of the consequences of the alarm condition, that is, the alarm may be classified as a high, medium or low priority. The annunciation of the particular alarm in any one of those categories is generally prescribed by various standards, that is, if the alarm is a high or medium priority alarm, there generally must be a repetitive, audible alarm and the user has a limited ability to silence such alarm.
On the other hand, the alarms that are classified into the low priority are of lesser severity. A repeated audio component or annunciation is not a requirement, and only a visual display alerts the user to the continued existence of an alarm condition.
Once classified into one of the foregoing categories, the manner of annunciation of the alarm is mandated, as described, by various standards. However, it is generally within the judgment of the manufacturer of the medical device as to what particular alarm will be placed into any of the categories.
One of the difficulties with any audio alarm is that they can become distracting in the clinical environment, particularly the hospital operating room, where there are already many other distractions. The continual sounding of an audible alarm can be further distracting and bothersome to the clinician. As a result, there is a tendency to classify many alarms as low priority and to provide only a visual alarm indication to avoid the multitude of sounds of alarms in the hospital environment. The difficulty with such approach, however, is that the clinician may miss the non-repeating low priority audio, if provided, and therefore miss the fact that an alarm condition exists that should be at least brought to the attention of the operating personnel.
The dilemma in today's medical devices is that classification of the alarms as high or medium priority creates the possibility of numerous audio alarms that are bothersome and are distracting to the clinician potentially inhibiting the clinicians complete attention to the particular operation. Alternatively, the alarm condition can be classified as a low priority with the inherent risk that an alarm condition may not sufficiently gain the clinician's attention.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous for certain medium priority alarms to be able to be downgraded or de-escalated into the low priority category once the user has been made aware of a given condition, so that the potentially distracting audible sound is removed from the already busy and sometimes noisy surroundings in the clinical environment and is not a further distraction to the clinician. It is not desirable that the alarm completely go away since its presence is needed as a reminder of the fault condition. It would also be advantageous if the de-escalation of the alarm category is only allowed through some positive, deliberate act by the clinician.